Briony Clegane
Briony Clegane is the Lady-Commander of the Redcloaks and a member of King Tyrion V Lannister's war council. Appearance Briony is tall for a woman, six feet tall and bulky with armor and muscle, the distinctive red cloak that marks her as a member of King Tyrion’s elite guard always on her back. Her reddish-brown hair is tied back to keep it out of her face, and blue eyes shine from a face that’s taken more than its fair share of battering. Most notable is the uneven patch of scar tissue that spreads from her left cheekbone up and across her face and forehead, covering about a third of her face. At her side hangs the red-bladed greatsword once wielded by King Gregor Lannister, his name only one of the many former holders engraved in its sides. Backstory House Clegane has no lands or titles. They’re a small knightly house, sworn directly to the Rock, ever since King Gregor Lannister caused scandal by marrying Cerenna Clegane and moving her and her family to Casterly Rock. Since then, at least one Clegane of each generation has won a place on the king’s elite Redcloak guard. Briony Clegane was no different- except for the fact that she was a woman, that is. Briony was born in 267AA in the bowels of the Rock, eldest child of Andros and Ella Clegane, to later be followed by one younger brother and one sister. As she grew up she could invariably be found in one place: the training yards of Casterly Rock, smacking lordlings about with first a bastard sword, then a greatsword once she grew strong enough to wield one (Two-Handed Weapons). She attracted plenty of mockery: she was tall for a girl, muscled from swinging a greatsword, and far from the Westerosi ideal of what a woman should be; her family were still seen by some as upjumped peasants; and on top of all of that, she wanted to be a knight. She only let the scorn motivate her, growing stronger and more skilled and dealing out beatings as they were necessary until the laughter faded into jealous and intimidated stares and mutters, easily ignored by a girl who didn’t care in the slightest what the world thought of her. Before long, a glare was enough to disperse even those last stubborn few (Intimidation). At three and ten, Briony began acting as a handmaid to the ladies of House Lannister. She performed her tasks dutifully, but with no joy or excitement, and she spent her free time wearing callouses into her palms in the practice yard and fantasizing about joining the elite Redcloaks who guarded the king. She ran frequent errands for the royal family in Lannisport, and it was there that her strength and training first truly helped her, blackening the eyes of any man who made the mistake of assuming she was helpless and tried to grope or leer at her. Briony’s life changed abruptly in the year 292AA, when she was three-and-twenty, with the onset of the War of the Trident. With the Trident collapsing into chaos, Lord Tully begged the King of the Rock, Tyran Lannister, for aid in defending the freedom of the Trident, offering his daughter’s hand for an alliance. The king refused the offer, but his son did not. Prince Tyrion left the Rock in the night, in secret, with all the men he could gather. Briony was the first to find him gone, and caught him at the gates, greatsword strapped across her back. This was the chance she’d been waiting for, that she’d been practicing for all these years- to prove her mettle as a fighter in real combat. She half-pleaded with the prince to let her fight at his side, and he acquiesced. When Prince Tyrion marched to relieve the Trident, there was a woman in armor with a greatsword at her side, riding with him. She transitioned to the role of soldier and commander naturally and admirably, with the sense it was something she’d been waiting for all her life. She helped to lead the centre of the Lannister army when they rode to route the Gardener camp surrounding Riverrun, learning how wars were fought and won, learning how to besiege and make hell for an opposing force (Beleaguer), and she cheered with the rest of the attendants when Prince Tyrion wed Gwyn Tully. The successes of the Lannister and Tully forces, however, turned sour at the battle of Stony Sept. Briony spent it guarding her prince’s back, enough to frustrate the Arryn and Gardener forces, because a nameless soldier tackled her from behind, forcing her to the ground, and shoved a torch into her face. She never even learned which army he fought for. She didn’t care. In the moment, her flesh bubbling on her face, all she could do was swing her greatsword one-handed to club the man’s weight off of her, fight her way to her feet, and decapitate him with a single frantic swing. She swayed, momentarily half-blind and nearly fainting from the pain, but stayed on her feet, knuckles white around the grip of her sword, and cleaved the next man who charged at her in half at the waist. Her battle wasn’t over yet. Not by a long shot. She fought until the tide of battle turned in their favor, until finally the Arryn and Gardener armies began their slow retreat. Until they had won, and the Trident could remain free. She rode back with her prince and his new bride at the head of a much-diminished army, bandages swathing half her face, to return to sickening news. King Tyran had been killed by ironborn on Fair Isle, and Prince Tyrion was now King of the Rock. There had been another death as well, one of a lesser impact to the kingdom but a much greater impact to Briony Clegane. One of the Redcloaks had died at King Tyran’s side, leaving an opening in the order. Tyrion’s cousin, Joffrey Lannister, clamored for the position, saying it was his by right, but the new king instead named Briony, who’d proven her worth with steel and blood at the Trident, to be his newest guard. She was given the red cloak she’d always dreamed of bearing, and donned it with pride. She served loyally for three years, guarding her king’s every step, before the old Lord Commander retired his post to raise his family and Briony was promoted to take his place. She was the first woman and the first Clegane to ever hold the position, and met all the scorn directed at her by yelling back louder, by fighting harder, by proving herself time and time again as an able warrior, a competent commander, and a dedicated guard. Timeline * 267AA: Briony is born. * 274AA: Learning to swordfight, Briony becomes the terror of Casterly Rock’s training yards. * 280AA: Briony starts serving the ladies of the Rock as a handmaid, running frequent errands for them. * 292AA: Briony follows Prince Tyrion to the War of the Trident, and helps to command the centre of his army. She suffers a hideous burn at the Battle of Stony Sept. * 292AA: On return from the War of the Trident, Briony is named to the Redcloaks by King Tyrion. * 296AA: Briony is promoted to Lady Commander of the Redcloaks. * 298AA: Present day. Supporting Characters * Dina Clegane, younger sister and handmaid of the Rock, Medic * Ser Jon Clegane, younger brother and Redcloak, Warrior (Swords) * Ser Ethan Westford, Redcloak guard, Executioner Category:Westerlander Category:Knight